Citizens of Ukraine and foreigners turn to the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights for two reasons. First, because childless families that want to adopt children must take proper care of them; second, because adults, after getting acquainted with little orphans, are eager to give them family love and care. To make their wishes come true, future parents have to wade through a lot of red tape (adoption paperwork requires a number of certificates, including the adoptive parents’ bills of health, bank statements, and adoption authorization). Experts, however, insist that this red tape (the legal procedures cannot be practically simplified) is just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that it is much more difficult to endure the psychological strain before a child becomes a member of a family.
Adoption procedures are aggravated by inadequate Ukrainian legislation. According to Liudmyla Volynets, co-chairperson of the national nonprofit organization Children’s Protection Service, the Family Code of Ukraine contains a number of controversial clauses. One of these is that priority is given to married couples. Experts say that almost five percent of adoption applications are filed by single men and women, but the law forbids them to adopt children, even if they meet all the adoption requirements. The Family Code also contains a clause stating that brothers and sisters on adoption waiting lists cannot be separated. Volynets says that the very next paragraph of this law states the contrary, allowing brothers and sisters to be split up.
How can these and other misunderstandings be overcome? Experts suggest a number of amendments to the Family Code and the Tax Code of Ukraine, as well as the adoption of the bills “On Changes to Certain Legislative Acts” and “On the Adoption of Procedures in Regard to the Registration and Authorization of Foreign Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations in Ukraine Concerning the Adoption of Children and Control over their Activities.” Concealed behind this complex legalese are rather simple things.
Valentyna Hlushchenko, First Deputy Chairperson of the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights, explains: “If the state is stimulating the arrival of a child in a family the natural way, it must also encourage adoptions. Therefore, the first thing our legislators must do is pass a bill on one-time adoption payments, the sum of which should be equal to that payable at childbirth. Also, the family must receive a monthly adoption allowance until the child comes of age. One of the adoptive parents should be entitled to a three-month paid leave right after the adoption. Another request for our legislators is that they relieve the adoptive parents of all taxes and duties.”
Experts believe that such measures on the government’s part must give an impetus to the national adoption process — children adopted by Ukrainian nationals. Over the past nine months Ukrainians have adopted some 1,300 children, compared to 1,178 adopted by foreigners. Despite the slight difference in these statistics, experts believe that this increase in the numbers of Ukrainian adoptive parents is a positive phenomenon. Sometimes prospective adoptive parents from Ukraine and abroad choose the same child. Then the child’s “relatives” miraculously appear with their claims. Experts say that such situations are not that rare. In such cases it is important to ascertain whether these children are eligible for adoption (i.e., whether they are orphans, without relatives who can take care of them, as well as other issues).
According to a study conducted by the State Institute for Family and Youth Problems, 80 percent of adoptive parents want children younger than three years old. Adopting children who are older than six is considerably more difficult (only seven percent of respondents stated they were willing to adopt them). Hlushchenko says the adoption database has several times fewer children under three than older ones. Therefore, the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights cannot meet the demand of all potential adoptive parents. Because of inadequate resources, this department can handle only 2,000 adoption cases a year — specifically cases involving foreign applicants — whereas 5,000 foreign families send adoption applications to Ukraine every year.
Says Olena Herasymova, director of the program “A Family for Every Child”: “In Ukraine the adoption of children by foreigners is shrouded in a number of myths. Foreigners adopt only sick children; they choose older children; and they don’t adopt all the brothers and sisters from one family. These are just some of the myths that have nothing to do with reality. Proceeding from the work of foreign adoption agencies in Ukraine, it is possible to state that foreigners generally refuse to have anything to do with children who have brothers or sisters. As for sick children, Ukraine’s law provides for the adoption of children with Down’s syndrome and infantile cerebral palsy.
There are 150 foreign agencies in Ukraine that help their respective national clients adopt Ukrainian children. Our experts have no complaints about their professional performance. Each must have a 10-year record in the field at home, Ukrainian permits, and the experience of handling adoptions of problem children and undertaking to monitor the adopted children’s living conditions, education, etc.
Another problem linked to intercountry adoptions, experts emphasize, is that Ukraine still has not signed the Hague Adoption Convention, which states that foreign nationals can adopt a child in other countries only if the child cannot be transferred to foster care or adoption in the home country. Since the Ukrainian government keeps ignoring this important document (the issue of signing the convention has been placed on the Verkhovna Rada’s agenda three times, to no avail), experts propose two ways out of this situation: refuse to sign the convention but take into account its most important clauses, or adopt intercountry adoption procedures and amend the Civil Code of Ukraine. In addition, the government should ratify the requirements and deadlines for reports on such intercountry adoptions and institute procedures for monitoring the protection of adopted children’s rights in foreign families.
